Neal on Barnet test

6 December 2012

Chris Slavin

Team news and an update from the boss

Neal Ardley will check on the fitness of both Byron Harrison and Steven Gregory before selecting his side for Saturday’s trip to Barnet.

Top goalscorer Harrison has been dogged by a back injury in recent weeks and is doubtful for the resumption of Wimbledon’s League 2 campaign and Gregory has been struck down with illness so he could miss the match. Rashid Yussuff is also still on Wimbledon’s injury list and is definitely out.

Neal Ardley updated us with the latest team news this morning before dashing off to Walton for Thursday’s training session. Wimbledon’s preparations for Saturday’s match have been hit by the weather and with pitches at our New Malden training complex frozen over this morning, the squad headed for 3G pitches at the Xcel Leisure Complex in Walton.

“The weather has played a bit of havoc with us,” admitted the Wimbledon manager. “We were looking forward to having a good week’s training to get to grips with a big game on Saturday. We had a smaller area for training on Tuesday and then went to a Goals Centre on Wednesday. Today, the training pitches are frozen over and we are going over to Walton so that we can use the 3G pitches there for 11 versus 11 type work. It has been difficult, but you have to try and adapt to fit your training schedule in.”

While Saturday’s match at Barnet has been billed as a “six-pointer” due to the proximity of the two sides near the bottom of the table, the Wimbledon manager admits he is looking at the bigger picture.

“All the games are big for us now, not just Barnet because they are at the bottom of the table,” Neal added. “We have set the players targets that we need to meet. The match on Saturday is not going to define our season. The coaching team have sat down and watched DVDs of the opposition so that the players can work on how we are going to attack the game. We will go there to try and take something from the game and we will be working on that today and tomorrow.

“Hopefully, we can also start turning our home form around though because that could be key for us in trying to move away from the bottom of the table.”

The full video interview with Neal Ardley can be viewed on Dons Player.